From SamuliS: 28mm Dinosaur, Bard & Challenge Desperado (45 points)

From Samuli:

All good things come to an end, which means that I must present to you my last entry for the painting challenge. A slightly smaller one, though it does include the largest single "mini" that I've done for the challenge!

First up the entry fee desperado. The mini is from Foundry (I think). Bought it off a club mate when I realized I didn't have any suitable minis available. Painted with pretty quite down to earth colours as I didn't want to go too over the board with him.

Next we have a Gripping Beast Bard for Saga. Funny looking mini, though I doubt he'll have much use in the game. Forgot to get any suitable minis for the Sarah's choice category, but I'm hoping that a bard might help gain at least some pity points thanks to his heart wrenching songs :)

And finally we have Danny the Dino. Some cheap 2 euro toy from a trinket store. Green stuff to fill in the most horrible moulding lines and finally painted with an airbrush. This was a random side project which always went ahead a bit when I was bored with other things and had the airbrush handy. Named after the most horrendous music video of all time, from a Finnish artist called Danny. Ever jealous of Swedish success somebody decided it might be a good idea to copy ABBA and their style. Didn't end that well. If you are able to find any choreography worse than this I congratulate you! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYllzQPQp78

Finally as there seem to be some funny dresses I thought I might contribute mine. Unfortunately due to restrictions caused by my age I'm not really able to go back to the 70s :) However at least I can be more colourful than the rest of you in my nice pink outfit complete with a funny hat. 

Student fashion is a bit different in Finland. Every different study field has their own colour which also varies by their University. Where I used to study the mechanical engineers wore pink, because it's pretty much the manliest colour available. Plus it's pretty easy to find your mates when nobody else wears the same colours anywhere.

Awesome dinosaur Samuli! I really like how you did the stripes on him - very cool.

I will direct Sarah to your ardent bard, but I wouldn't hold your breath (but you never know).

Thank you very much for the excellent gunslinger. His grey waistcoat and pocket watch chain makes him quite spiffing.

I must say I'm a bit bamboozled by your university togs. I dunno, maybe you should have gone into Home Economics or something...

This eclectic mix of figures will give Samuli 45 points, which, along with your upcoming points for the bonus round, will put you over your Challenge target of 1200 points. Congratulations and thanks again!

From SamuliS: 28mm WWII Finnish Infantry (88 points)

From Samuli:

These are the last additions to my Winter War Finnish infantry at least until the next wave of Kickstarter goodies(?) arrives. I'm pretty glad that they are all done now as I really started to get fed up with many of the sculpts. At least the tanks etc. are looking good in the photos so maybe there are some nice minis coming up too.

I had some issues with the snow material that I used previously as it started to sink quite a bit after a week or so leaving the bases looking a bit weird. This time I tried just using the snow flock on PVA glue with even worse results. Looks good immediately after applying, but now that they've dried completely most of the flock has turned grey. So now I have pretty much 43 bases to redo after I've found some recipe for snow that actually works.

Once again the sculpt quality varies way too much for my tastes. There were a few that I hadn't painted before like the NCO with the scarf that was actually quite nice. Then "Running Man" makes another appearance as does some LMG gunner who looks like his face was carved with a blunt axe.

I know some of these models come as a bit of a disappointment but the results you've achieved are excellent. Too bad about the deteriorating snow effect (it must be that Spring is just around the corner!) - I hope you find an effective replacement that doesn't cause too much of a headache.

These winter Finns will give Samuli 88 points. Well done!

From SamuliS: 28mm Winter War Finnish Ski Troops (25 points)

From Samuli:

Back to Winter War project again with 5 Finnish ski troops representing a Kaukopartio or Long Range Patrol squad. I originally wanted to paint these for the hero themed fortnight challenge, but only got the minis two days before the deadline thanks to Royal Mail/Fail taking their time with my package :)

The long range patrol teams that Finland employed are quite a personal subject for me as my grandfather served as a sergeant in one of the teams and later on I ended up serving my own military service as a platoon leader in reconnaissance too. The Kaukopartio troops have quite a legendary reputation in Finland as they are some of the highest decorated units to serve in the Finnish army and they carried out some awe inspiring missions during the war. Details of their operations are still a bit sketchy as most of the material was destroyed after a peace had been negotiated with Soviet Union.

Their missions ranged from small intelligence gathering patrols behind to lines to strikes at Soviet supply depots and rear echelon troops with nearly battalion sized forces, with the longest missions lasting over three months hundreds of kilometers behind enemy lines. Such was the effect of their missions that one of the most famous commanders, Lauri Törni, even had a 3 million mark (roughly 600,000 dollars at the time) bounty put on his head by the Soviets. The same Törni actually fought under three nations serving in the Finnish army, the Nordic battalion of the Waffen-SS and finally being killed in Vietnam while serving in the US Army as a Major in Green Berets.

The minis are from Warlord this time. The quality difference between the Baker Co stuff and Warlord is just massive. These guys have far more realistic proportions and better facial features than anything from Baker Company. There are still some issues like the massive amounts of flash. And I only had one rifle in the whole blister that was completely intact with the rest of them missing the front sight and the end of the barrel.

You've done just a wonderful job on these miniatures Samuli. I particularly like how you've dirtied up the knees, elbows and edging of their trousers and parkas. I have to agree with you in that these castings seem significantly nicer to the Baker Company sculpts we've seen to date. 

Also, this Lauri Torni fellow seems to be a very impressive, if not controversial, character. An ex-Waffen SS member in the Green Berets? That is an interesting (if not shocking) tidbit indeed. I definitely need to do some reading on this fellow.

These five Kaukopartio will give Samuli 25 points.

From SamuliS: 28mm Victorian Science Fiction Ottomans (50 points)

From Samuli:

Change of subject again with a small company of VSF Ottoman's for In Her Majesty's Name. These guys are from Lead Adventure and they great castings with plenty of detail. They are part of the Ottoman Special Operation Services (SOS) formed of some of the most highly decorated Janissaries of the Sultanate.

These buggers took a lot longer to paint than I anticipated as there is just so much detail on them and I constantly had to go back to paint something that I hadn't noticed earlier. Still a pleasure to paint and bringing a bit of change from the larger projects that I have going on.

Leading the company is Colonel Mehmet Pasha who persuaded the Sultan to let him form a small team for special operations after seeing what the Prussian Society of Thule was able to achieve. Keeping order in the company is Sergeant Yahya who had gained fame leading a desperate last stand against overwhelming odds. He survived, but lost his arm, which has now been replaced by a mechanical prothesis made by the Ottoman Master Engineers.

Responsible for the Company's heavy support is Corporal Seyit. A well known strongman who proved his strength by carrying shells to his 240mm naval gun. He is equipped with a new rocket launcher that is normally meant for a team of two. Medics of the company traditionally don't carry any weaponry except for the Janissary scimitar which they also use to treat unfortunate casualties.

Rest of the company is formed of veteran Janissaries who are supplied by the best that the Sultanate can muster. From the latest self-loading rifles to machine guns, they are prepared to deal with whatever threatens their beloved Sultan and his empire.

How incredibly fun! I love the figures from Lead Adventure as their sculpts typically have stacks and stacks of character and these guys certainly don't disappoint. Without a doubt the main characters are wonderful what with their bionics and hand cannons, but even the lowly squadies have so much to discover. I particularly like the fellow with the hooka pipe and the other with the portable gattling gun (!). And really, who can deny any figures who's are rocking the fez like these guys?

These formidable Ottoman Special Operatives will give Samuli 50 points.

From SamuliS: 28mm Winter War Finnish Infantry (50 points)

From Samuli:

Another bunch of Winter War Finnish troops. An automatic rifle squad and the platoon HQ team. I took some inspiration from Michael and decided muddy my guys up too. 

Not much to say about the minis or the paint job. There are actually a few sort of good sculpts in this bunch, like the officer in his leather jacket. 

I simplified the paint job a bit to speed up the whole process by removing the deepest shadow color and the final highlight of pure white.

Nice and fast to do. So maybe there is some hope of clearing the painting table of these guys soon. At least until the next Kickstarter batch arrives.

Ah, yes the dirty uniforms really set these guys off nicely, well done. Also, your streamlined process hasn't affected your quality a bit - lovely work here.

This squad of Fins will give Samuli 50 points. Nice job!

From SamuliS: 28mm Dark Age Norse Gaels (68 points)

From Samuli:

Back to the Dark ages after rolling through the muddy roads of Belgium and Netherlands. I present to you the last half of Gripping Beasts Norse-Gael starter set. Cheaper equipment (spears instead of Dane Axes) has allowed these guys to keep their shoes, so they are not as angry as the previous lot.

I cheated a bit on the shields this time by using Battle Flags excellent decals! Really nice, except for the fact that the metal shields aren't the same size as Gripping Beasts plastic ones. Had to cut the decals up a bit to make them fit. I decided to paint the curved shields by hand as the decals were quite thick and didn't go on very well on curved surfaces.

So this marks my first finished project for the challenge! Rare feeling as I normally just paint whatever takes my fancy so I tend to have a million projects going on at the same time with all of them in various states of progress. Next up Winter War Finns to try to complete the infantry portion of that project.

Wonderful work Samuli and congratulations on finishing off this project! These guys do seem less anxious than your last group so I think you're onto something with your shoe theory. It really is all about accessorizing.

This group of Norse Gaels will give Samuli 68 points. Great stuff! I look forward to seeing your next set of Winter War Finns.

From SamuliS: 28mm Winter War Finnish Riflemen (50 points)

Samuli sends in this great unit of riflemen portraying his own nation's history, 'The Winter War'.

From Samuli:

For my next entry I have a squad of Finnish Riflemen from the Baker Company Kickstarter. Just in time for the first snows to finally grace the ground here after months of misery caused by continuous rain and darkness.

These are some of the minis from the highly successful Baker Company Kickstarter that ended up exceeding the expectations of everyone. It's nice to have someone make minis of Finns, too bad that the quality isn't always up to nowadays standards. It seems that Baker Company was bit of a victim of their own success as they have had to sculpt massive amounts of new minis to fill all the stretch goal unlocks etc. 

And boy does it show on the minis as there are just massive quality differences between them with some having good proportions and having nicely sculpted faces etc. and then some with ridiculously thick or thin arms and legs and faces that are more in the likeness of an ape than a human :) Also some equipment like most of the shoes doesn't look like anything used in the war. And don't get me even started about the huge amount of flash that the castings had...

Not much to paint as most of the minis are covered with a snow suit so I tried to put some extra effort on that. Starting out from Khaki I tried to achieve a slightly dirtier look on it. 5 layers of highlights later it may have ended a bit too light, but I guess they present a unit at the start of the war then!

The snow is a combination of Noch snow paste and snow flock. A new material for me as I was actually supposed to buy another kind of snow flock from them, but only realized at home that they do numerous different ones and I managed to pick the wrong type. Too lazy to go back to the shop I decided to give it a try. It ended up looking quite a lot like fresh snow on a really cold day so I guess it achieved it's goal well enough.

I was part of this Kickstarter as well but I bailed when I decided to go with 15mm for this period and started seeing their later sculpts (which, as you say, seemed rather uninspired). Nonetheless they look very nice under your hand, Samuli, and makes me rethink my decision not to have stuck it out. Oh well...

These ten riflemen will give Samuli 50 points. Well done!

From SamuliS: 6mm ACW Union Brigade (85 points)

Samuli switches gears and so sends in this great Brigade of wee Union infantry for an upcoming Gettysburg project.

From Samuli: 

My next entry is a change in scale and era to something completely new for me. I've never painted anything smaller than 15mm before and ACW is also something I'm not too familiar with. Still you have to try something new every once in a while and as we have a 6mm Gettysburg project going on at my club I decided to pitch in with a Union force and here is the first brigade done.

I was really impressed by the amount of detail on these Baccus minis. Didn't expect them to have any proper faces or webbing on them. Still nice and fast to paint even with all the detail. A good quick project to get some change between larger scale stuff.

Brilliant stuff Samuli! 6mm is great for allowing collectors to put together an army for a relatively small expense and not demanding an acre of room to play a large battle. 

These diminutive bluebellies will give Samuli 85 points. Great work!

From SamuliS: 15mm WWII American Paratroopers (91 points)

From Samuli:

Back from the holidays and at the painting station again. Starting to fall behind my schedule a bit, don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing this early. Either I have time to catch up or then I'll miserably fail... 

Anyhow here is the first part of my effort to paint up my Flames of War US Airborne army during the challenge. It's a full rifle platoon based with Kerr and King and Peter Pig products. Being a big fan of Saving Private Ryan, I had to include a bunch of dead cows on the bases. Luckily Kerr & King makes some in resin. Most of the bases for this platoon are Kerr & King resin with some small additions of Peter Pig stuff and then a few ones with only Peter Pig products. 

Maybe a bit too much to paint in one huge bunch as I did get quite frustrated at times when I had to paint the exact same stuff on 44 tiny minis at a time. First time I painted any 15mm without using metallics on rifles etc. and instead went with a mix of greys and blues to get a good shade. I think it turned out nicely and looks better in this scale than anything shiny. I also painted a representation of the US flag and 101st Insignia. The red was maybe a bit too bright, but looks good from a distance.

Next up a change in period and scale again by turning to 6mm ACW figures for a club project. Never done anything in that scale or era before so should be interesting.

Great work Samuli! Those resin bases work a treat and your non-metalic metal effect looks very good as well.

These US Paratroopers will give Samuli 91 points. I look forward to seeing your upcoming ACW entry...